Good morning! The rain has blown over, but it will be hot, muggy and potentially stormy today. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is back at the Capitol, and will hold a 2:30 p.m. cabinet meeting. The Assembly returns to session at 2 p.m., the Senate at 3 p.m. Comptroller Tom DiNapoli will address the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce about the state economy, budget, pension fund and fiscal stress facing municipalities. The Assembly Committee on Governmental Operations will hold a hearing on mitigating risk after Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, and Tropical Storm Lee and examine the recommendations of the NYS2100 Commission. The Independent Democratic Conference will hold a hearing on public campaign finance. Over 100 bikers will ride from Rensselaer County to the Capitol to promote motorcycle safety. They’ll convene in West Capitol Park at around 11:45 a.m. Here are other events from our Week Ahead and here are headlines from this morning at the weekend…

“For the sake of my family, for the sake of my close friends and for the sake of my own health, I will resign from the Assembly Monday morning by 10 a.m.,’’ Lopez told Fred Dicker. “I want to make it clear that this is not an admission of wrongdoing on my part. … I have not admitted to wrongdoing, and I do feel I was denied an opportunity for due process in the investigations that took place.” (NYP)

“We need to make sure we eliminate the culture that this is permissible,” Assemblywoman Amy Paulin said. She added, “Getting rid of one speaker and replacing him with another does nothing. All it does is politicize, but it does nothing to help the women.” (NYT)

Casey: Does this put Silver in the company of Penn State’s Joe Paterno and the innumerable Catholic prelates who knew about the sexual abuse of children but failed to do enough to stop it?//Not exactly. Lopez’s behavior is disgusting, but, according to Donovan, does not involve criminal violations. (JCOPE did find substantial evidence of potential violations of Public Officers Law that could result in a monetary penalty for Lopez.)//Still, Silver’s handling of the $103,000 confidential settlement recalls his poor initial response to allegations of sexual crimes brought against his former counsel Michael Boxley a decade ago, an episode that Silver insisted he had learned from.

Bill Hammond: New Yorkers outside the Albany bubble are no doubt wondering: What the hell is going on here?//Why are Silver’s members — who, after all, are self-interested politicians themselves — so readily granting him a pass for this shocking foul-up? Why would Silver tolerate Lopez’s groping of state employees? And why would Lopez think he could get away it in the first place?//The key to understanding all of this, as with so much of the corruption in Albany of late, is the corrosive culture of the Legislature.//And that begins and ends with the Democrat-controlled Assembly’s near-absolute boss rule. (DN)

The Times Union: As Mr. Lopez slinks off, the spotlight remains on Mr. Silver. Political adversaries say he should go, too. After carefully weighing the JCOPE report, we disagree. But it falls to him now to show that the lessons apparent in the report have been learned. (TU)

The New York Times:The degrading abuse of at least eight women, as outlined in a harrowing ethics report released on Wednesday, should enrage members of the Assembly enough to expel Mr. Lopez from public office immediately, not wait for his promised resignation in June. Assembly Democrats should also seize the opportunity to remove Mr. Silver from a leadership post he has occupied since 1994 and is clearly no longer fit to hold. It should not be beyond their capacities to find an honorable leader who cares more about the public than about Albany’s seedy status quo.//We know that Democratic Assembly members are scared witless by the thought of challenging Mr. Silver. After a challenger failed in 2000, Mr. Silver made certain that the rival and his followers also lost power, money and office space. But the Lopez case demands a response, even from timid Democrats. It demonstrates not only Mr. Silver’s customary imperiousness but a long-standing moral blindness to the way powerful men around him intimidate and sexually harass young women working in the Capitol. (NYT)

Mike Lupica: Silver’s people say that separate investigations have turned up no legal or ethical violations against Shelly Silver, or members of his staff. Maybe this is only because Silver, at this stage of his career, nearly 20 years on the job as speaker of the New York State Assembly, remains as shifty and as quick-footed as ever, able to stay ahead of the state ethics commission, which means the ones on that commission who don’t owe him favors. (DN)

Alan Chartock: Put yourself in the governor’s place as a trickle of public corruption turns into a river of rot.//Here is Cuomo, who has promised to clean up Albany. He started when he was attorney general and received high marks for his efforts. Now, however, he finds himself having to clean up those who are partners in the game with him in making public policy. So far that has proven to be very difficult.//If Cuomo hadn’t promised to be the key player, it wouldn’t matter that the heavy lifting is being done by the FBI and Department of Justice officials. The governor will tell you, “You wouldn’t believe how dirty some of these people are” and he’d know, since he reviewed their files when he was AG.//Now is the time for him to reinvigorate his efforts. He needs to threaten to use his power to create a Moreland Act Commission to investigate legislators and other public officials. (Daily Freeman)

Rick Timbs: Are schools relevant to the creation and maintenance of a positive business climate in New York? You bet they are. Can a vibrant and enlarged business community survive without vibrant and successful schools? No. Perhaps then, the role of schools is misunderstood within the calculus of New York’s business climate. (Post-Standard)

Richard Brodsky: Look at the evidence. There’s a pattern of abuse of legislative member item funding of controlled local organizations. There’s no pattern dealing with outside employment by legislators. There’s a pattern of big legal money affecting executive and legislative outcomes. The remedies should follow the evidence. (TU)

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Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.